The Child Development Research Group (CDRG) response to the Covid-19 pandemic: Creating and evaluating remote services for young children
The Covid-19 pandemic led to the suspension of many in-person services. Early in the pandemic there was an urgent call for ways to continue services for families with young children (1). The Child Development Research Group’s Reach Up and Irie teams responded to this challenge with innovations to support remote delivery of services and training.
Virtual training workshops were developed for the Reach Up parenting programme so that training of programme leads in new countries could continue. The team developed a manual for parents, with brief descriptions and illustrations of play and language activities for children 0-3 years selected from the Reach Up curriculum using those that either needed no materials or substitute household items were suggested (2). Tips for parents on caring for their own wellbeing were also included. The manual was given to parents and provided content for remote contacts with parents (phone calls, WhatsApp, radio programs). In partnership with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) the manual was translated and shared with government agencies and service providers across Latin America and widely used to provide content for remote services.
In Jamaica, the Ministry of Health and Wellness (MOHW) gave parents the manual in combination with fortnightly phone calls from community health workers trained in remote delivery and twice weekly text messages. The program, suspended in March 2020, restarted remotely in September of the same year. Impact evaluation showed increased parent-child activities (Effect size (ES) = 0.34 SD) and greater use of praise by parents. Process evaluation in Jamaica and Brazil showed the programme motivated parents and was accepted by staff (3).
The Irie team adapted The Irie Homes Toolbox (IHT) (4, 5), a violence prevention parenting programme, for virtual delivery. The virtual IHT (vIHT) was a 10-week programme of weekly, one-hour, virtual group parenting sessions, an e-summary sent via WhatsApp, three SMS messages/week and access to a data-free app. Virtual group sessions were conducted by government early childhood development officers. Process evaluation showed they conducted >99% of the groups on schedule and with adequate levels of quality (6). Ninety percent of participants read the SMS/WhatsApp messages and 79% attended at least one virtual group with 52% attending five or more sessions (6). However, only 40% downloaded the App.
A randomised trial, conducted in collaboration with the World Bank, with 1,113 caregivers of children aged two-to-six years, demonstrated significant reductions in caregiver violence against children (VAC) (ES= -0.12SD) and reduced caregiver positive attitudes to VAC (ES= -0.20SD), with benefits sustained at nine-month follow-up (7). The intervention also led to reduced child emotional problems (ES=-0.17SD). Although no significant impacts on caregivers’ mental well-being were found at post-test, significant reductions in caregiver depression (ES=0.12SD), anxiety (ES=0.16SD) and parental stress (ES=0.16SD), and improvements in caregivers’ parenting self-efficacy (ES=0.21SD) were observed at nine-month follow-up (7).
The CDRG’s work provides evidence that remote interventions can improve parenting behaviours, reduce VAC and improve parent mental health, and can be delivered by government services. Their use as stand-alone programmes or combined with in-person delivery offers flexibility for scaling services for families in Jamaica and globally.
- Yoshikawa H, Wuermli AJ, Britto PR, et al. Effects of the global coronavirus disease-2019 pandemic on early childhood development: short-and long-term risks and mitigating program and policy actions. The Journal of pediatrics. 2020;223:188-193.
- Chang-Lopez M, Walker S, Grantham-McGregor SM, et al. Manual for parents: Early Stimulation Actvities for Children up to 3 years of age. Inter-American Development Bank; 2020: https://publications.iadb.org/es/manual-para-padres-actividades-de-estimulacion-temparana-para-ninos-de-hasta-3-anos-de-edad
- Smith JA, Chang SM, Brentani A, et al. A remote parenting program and parent and staff perspectives: A randomized trial. Pediatrics. 2023;151(Supplement 2):S85-S101
- Francis T, Baker-Henningham H (2020) Design and implementation of the Irie Homes Toolbox. Frontiers in Public Health 8: 282961. Doi:10.3389/fpubh.2020.282961
- Francis T, Baker-Henningham H. (2021) The Irie Homes Toolbox: A cluster-randomized controlled trial of an early childhood parenting program to prevent violence against children in Jamaica. Children and Youth Services Review 126: 106060. Doi: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2021.106060.
- Francis T, Dinarte-Diaz D, Powers S, Baker-Henningham H. (2024) The Virtual Irie Homes Toolbox: Adaptation and remote delivery of an early childhood, violence prevention, parenting programme in Jamaica. Journal of Research in Childhood Education 38, Supp 1. S92-S111. Doi: 10.1080/02568543.2023.2281560
- Dinarte-Diaz D, Ravindran S, Shah M, Powers S, Baker-Henningham H. (2023) Violent discipline and child Behaviour. Short- and medium-term effects of parenting support to caregivers in Jamaica. NBER Working Paper Series, Working Paper 31338. National Bureau of Economic Research. https://doi.org/10.3386/w31338
